The once in a generation chance for fundamental health reform

An all-party Oireachtas committee could be exactly what Ireland’s healthcare system needs

Dr Sara Burke, health policy analyst and researcher, Trinity College Dublin; Tony O’Brien, director general, Health Service Executive; Róisín Shortall, TD, Social Democrats and chair of all-party Oireachtas committee on the future of healthcare; Leo Kearns, chief executive, Royal College of Physicians in Ireland; and Audrey Carville, journalist and broadcaster, RTE Pictures: Maura Hickey

Tony O’Brien, the director general of the Health Service Executive (HSE), regards the establishment of an all-party Oireachtas committee on the future of healthcare as “the single most important policy development in the Irish healthcare system”.

Dr Sara Burke told the 13th Annual Sunday Business Post National Health Summit that Ireland has never had a good plan for health reform.

“We’ve had national health strategies and endless policy documents, but never political consensus ...